Wine pours out of South Africa as exports rise

The South African wine industry is booming as figures show exports have grow 25 percent over the last year.

South Africa’s wine exports are set to hit new highs in 2013 with a growing demand from North America and Asia, according to industry executives and growers.

Wine exports rose to 469 million litres in the year ending April, which is 25 percent more than in the previous 12 months, data from the Wines of South Africa trade body (Wosa) shows. Bulk shipments rose 53 percent while those of bottled and packaged wines fell five percent, as large producers bottled more in export markets.

A wet winter bringing plenty of underground water, more marketing in the US and elsewhere, and good global demand for bulk wine contributed to the boosted yields in 2013, according to Su Birch, Chief Executive Officer at WOSA. The rand, which is near a four-year low against the dollar, is also helping exporters.

However, costs in South Africa are rising as the government increased the minimum wage for farmworkers by 52 percent to R105 ($11.51) a day after a series of strikes in wine-growing areas in the Western Cape turned violent, prompting the police to respond with tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons.

â€œIf you think about South Africa’s history, we’ve been making wine for 350 years but it’s only really since 1994 that we’ve actively pursued the export market, that we’ve been welcomed,” Johan Erasmus, general manager of the Glen Carlou winery in the Paarl Valley, said at a tasting in London last March.

Wine has been grown in South Africa since Dutch settlers arrived in the 17th century, but the country was cut off from trade during the apartheid era, until 1994.

The UK was the biggest importer of South Africa’s wine last year, receiving 22 percent while Germany was second with 19 percent, according to Wosa’s report. While exports of South African wine to the UK and the US fell in the five years to 2011. They significantly rose in China and almost tripled in Nigeria.

Leading export brands include First Cape, Kumala and the Distell Group’s Fleur du Cap.

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